Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path

Walking in the darkness

Man, I wish I would’ve turned the lights on last night when I got out of bed. I got out of bed to get something and slammed my toe on a three-pound weight my son left in my bedroom. It hurt pretty bad.

Which makes realize how wonderful light is. It’s crazy how something so small can cause so much pain. If only the light would’ve been on, I could have dodged it or dealt with it. But it’s hard to do that when you can’t see it.

Well, enough about my toe.

Turn the light on

This incident brought a verse to mind.

Psalm 119:105 (NIV)Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

God’s word functions in a Christians life much like electric light functions in your bedroom, for example.

Sin, which can seem insignificant, can cause a lot of pain in your life. On the other side of hurt and pain you think, “If only I had seen that coming, I could’ve dodged it or dealt with it”. But it’s hard to see in the dark.

God’s word shines it’s magnificent light on us and reveals sin. It warns us about things that displease God, it will give us wisdom, and, along with the Holy Spirit, reveals any sin that may have been unnoticed.

It will tell us things like this:

Proverbs 19:9 (NLT)A false witness will not go unpunished,and a liar will be destroyed.

Proverbs 19:17 (NLT)If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord—and he will repay you!

Proverbs 19:18 (NLT)Discipline your children while there is hope.Otherwise, you will ruin their lives.

Proverbs 19:26 (NLT)Children who mistreat their father or chase away their motherare an embarrassment and a public disgrace.

And all of these examples are from just one amazing book.

The light can hurt

A final note I want to make is that turning the light will come with a price. It’s kind of like when you’ve been in the dark and your eyes have adjusted to the lack of light and then someone turns them on unexpectedly – it hurts. It hurts for a moment but then your vision adjusts.

Darkness is the lack of God’s light. And because of sin, we love it.

Jesus explained it this way in John 3:19, “And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.”

Our sinful nature loves to sin and God’s light exposes it. Even though we like to do it, we don’t want to be exposed. We’d rather do it in the darkness of our souls where no one can judge us.

So beware that as you let the light of God’s word shine in your life pain will come.

But stay strong and rejoice because what will be left one day is the image of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.